Running VirusBarrier the First Time

The first time you run Intego VirusBarrier, you will be asked what level of protection you would like to enable. The default protection level is Standard and is recommended for most users.

Minimum: Provides essential protection that protects your Mac from the most common threats. With this setting, VirusBarrier will scan for Mac OS X malware, viruses and malicious scripts.

Standard: Recommended protection for most users. With the Standard Protection setting, VirusBarrier will scan for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux malware. It will also scan for malicious scripts and scan your e-mails and attachments for potential infections.

Maximum: This setting enables all of VirusBarrier's features and options. VirusBarrier protects against Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux malware, Malicious Scripts, and E-mail protection. It will also enable the following features: Scan your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad for malware, Quick Scan after malware definition updates, scan for Hacking Tools, Keyloggers, and Scan Archives. Warning: Enabling Maximum Protection may impact computer performance. If you experience degradation in your computer's performance while using Maximum Protection, you may want to choose a different coverage level.

You can find more information about each of these features in the VirusBarrier Preferences section of this manual: VirusBarrier Preferences

Real-Time Scanner: All of the default protection options provided will enable Real-Time Scanning. The Real-Time Scanner constantly watches over your Mac, protecting you from viruses and malware. The Real-Time scanner ensures that your Mac is protected at all times by scanning every file that is created, copied, modified or saved. It does not, however, scan other files. This is why we suggest you run a full scan of all your files when you install VirusBarrier and after each update to the program's virus definitions. You can also use VirusBarrier's On-Demand scanner to check any file, folder, disk, or volume on your Mac.

You can always change your level of protection by selecting 'Setup Assistant...' from the VirusBarrier menu.

Once you have chosen your protection level and clicked the Continue button, the latest Malware Definitions will automatically be downloaded and installed.

Basic Help

The Basic Help overlay will appear once you have chosen a level of protection for the first time. This overlay points out the main features of VirusBarrier. (Note: You can access this Basic Help menu at any time by clicking Help in your top menu bar and selecting Basic Help).

Scanning with VirusBarrier

VirusBarrier's anti-malware protection works in several ways. Its Real-Time Scanner constantly watches over your Mac, protecting you from viruses and malware. The Real-Time scanner ensures that your Mac is protected at all times by scanning every file that is created, copied, modified or saved. It does not, however, scan other files. This is why we suggest you run a full scan of all your files when you install VirusBarrier and after each update to the program's virus definitions.

You can also use VirusBarrier's On-Demand scanner to check any file, folder, disk, or volume on your Mac.

Full Scan vs Quick Scan

You can run a manual Full Scan with VirusBarrier whenever you want. You should do this immediately after installation to ensure that you don't have any infected files; the VirusBarrier Setup Assistant offers to do this after you first set up the program. After that, VirusBarrier's Real-Time scanner ensures that any new files you add to your Mac are safe.

VirusBarrier lets you run Quick Scans, which scan only those locations where malware is commonly installed. The files and folders scanned may change as new malware appears, and the locations scanned may be different with newer versions of VirusBarrier's virus definitions.

To run a Quick Scan, launch VirusBarrier and click the Quick Scan button. (Note: The Quick Scan button only appears when you select your entire computer in the left column).

Scanning a Single Volume

If you want to scan only a single volume connected to your computer using VirusBarrier, you can highlight the volume in the left column of the window and click the Scan button.

Scanning a Specific File or Folder

If you want to scan only a specific file or folder on your computer with VirusBarrier, you can do this simply by dragging and dropping the file into the VirusBarrier window as seen in the image below:

When Malware is Found

When a malware is found you will be notified immediately. It depends somewhat on what malware is detected, but you will generally have 3 options. You can choose to Trust, Quarantine or Repair the malware. If you want VirusBarrier to repair the file, click Repair; to put it in the Quarantine Zone, click Quarantine. (See the Quarantine section later in this manual for more details.) If you do not want to do anything, click Trust, and the file will not be repaired.

WARNING: Ignoring virus warnings can be dangerous! Only select to not repair files if you are sure of what you are doing.

Real-Time Scanner Preferences

The Real-Time Scanner constantly watches over your Mac, protecting you from viruses and malware. It ensures that your Mac is protected at all times by scanning every file that is created, copied, modified or saved. It does not, however, scan other files. This is why we suggest you run a full scan of all your files when you install VirusBarrier and after each update to the program's virus definitions.

Real-Time Scanner Settings

To turn off the Real-Time Scanner and disable VirusBarrier, move the Real-Time Scanner slider to OFF; you can turn it back on by moving the slider to ON. In normal operation, you will not need to disable the Real-Time Scanner; this is only useful for troubleshooting when you have a problem with your Mac.

The next settings let you indicate what VirusBarrier should do when malware is found. Your options are:

Ask what to do: this is most appropriate when you're running a virus scan on an "attended" Mac; that is, one that you're watching closely enough to see the alert when it pops up. Note that if you don't respond to an alert within one minute, VirusBarrier places infected files in the Quarantine Zone.

Place file in quarantine: this ensures that the file cannot be opened or read. See the Quarantine Zone section below for more about using the Quarantine Zone.

Attempt to repair: this tells VirusBarrier to attempt to remove the malware. If for any reason the file cannot be repaired it will be placed in the Quarantine Zone.

Send E-mail When Malware Is Detected

In addition, you can choose to have VirusBarrier send you an e-mail whenever it discovers a virus or malware. To set this up, check the Send e-mail to checkbox, then enter your e-mail address and click OK.

Scheduled Scanning

Scheduling a Scan

If you want you can schedule periodic scans. To schedule a scan, click the Scheduled Scanning button shown below:

Once you have switched the Schedule to "On", you can create Daily or Weekly scans for any time you like.

Advanced Mode

Clicking the Advanced button allows you to customize your Scheduled Scans. For example, you can choose to scan specific files or folders, and create multiple Scheduled Scans if necessary.

Quarantine Zone

Dealing with Quarantined Files

If you don't want to repair files automatically, you can have VirusBarrier put them in its Quarantine Zone. When files are quarantined, they can't be opened or read, ensuring that they cannot infect your Mac. This is useful for administrators who want to check files before running VirusBarrier's repair functions.

VirusBarrier automatically places files in the Quarantine Zone if you don't respond to an alert within one minute. You can then check these files and decide what to do. The Quarantine tab at the top of VirusBarrier's Overview screen shows you which files are quarantined.

You'll see a display that shows which files are in the Quarantine Zone, as well as a group of buttons allowing you to act on those files. To act on any of the files, select them and then click one of the three buttons at the bottom right of the window.

You can do the following:

Trusttells VirusBarrier that you think this file is not infected, and adds the file to VirusBarrier's Trusted Files list. This may occur for false positives. However, be very careful when you click this button: only do so if you are sure the file is safe. If not, it may infect your entire Mac. Probably a bad idea.

Delete removes the file from your Mac.

Repair tells VirusBarrier to remove the malware from the file.

You can also see the file location path for the quarantined file in the bottom left corner of the window.

VirusBarrier Preferences

About VirusBarrier Preferences

VirusBarrier is designed to work unobtrusively in the background once it's installed. However, it has numerous options to let you control how its various functions run. You set these options in the Preferences window, which you reach either by choosing VirusBarrier > Preferences... or by pressing Command-comma on your keyboard.

The Preferences window is divided into five panes: General, Scanner, Trusted Items, Advanced, and Feedback.

General Preferences

Scan:

E-mails VirusBarrier scans incoming and outgoing e-mails, both for their content and any attachments they contain, during manual scans.

iPhone, iPod touch and iPad tells VirusBarrier to show any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that is connected to your Mac when you run a manual scan so you can choose to scan the device for malware. If this option is unchecked, VirusBarrier will not show any iOS devices in the main window.

Volumes when they are mounted is triggered whenever you mount a new storage device, whether local (such as a hard drive) or remote (such as a network drive). If the Ignore read-only volumes checkbox is checked, VirusBarrier will perform the action only on those volumes where it could change the drive being scanned (for example, to repair an infected file on a disk).

After malware definition updates lets you tell VirusBarrier what to do after the program downloads and installs new virus definitions. Virus definitions are updated regularly, and especially when new malware is discovered to offer protection against that threat. Therefore, you should perform a new scan at those times to check for the new malware, either manually or (by checking this checkbox) automatically.

Notifications: The Reset Nofifications button resets any notification window you have dismissed. This includes the notification you see when you start up your computer that indicates you are protected with VirusBarrier.

Scanner Preferences

The Scanner Preferences section lets you choose to have VirusBarrier scan files for specific types of malware:

Detect:

Mac OS X malware: this is dimmed, because it is always active. VirusBarrier always scans for Mac OS X malware. This includes all types of malware that affects Mac OS X, such as Word and Excel macro viruses; the other categories are types of malware that cannot harm Mac OS X.

Windows malware: checking this tells VirusBarrier to look for viruses that affect Windows. Although these files can't damage your Mac, you could pass them on to your Windows-using friends, and they could affect you if you use Windows on your Apple computer through a program such as Apple Boot Camp, VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. (VirusBarrier does not, however, scan Windows virtual disks.)

Linux malware: if this is checked, VirusBarrier will scan for malware that affects the Linux operating system.

Hacking tools are malicious programs that may not directly harm your Mac, but that may be used by hackers to attack other computers. It is especially useful to check this option if your Mac is publicly accessible.

Keyloggers are programs that record all your keystrokes. While some such programs may be malicious, others may be installed intentionally to monitor computer users, such as children. If this is checked, users being monitored may be alerted to the existence of such software on their Mac.

Options:

Scan with low priority: This tells VirusBarrier to use the least amount of system resources possible when running a scan for malware. (Scanning with low priority may increase scan times)

Remove quarantine marker after scanning uninfected files: VirusBarrier will remove a quarantine marker set by Mac OS X when applications are downloaded and VirusBarrier has found that they are not infected by any malware. This removes the Mac OS X dialog warning you that they were downloaded and asking if you're sure you want to open them.

Scan Archives:

Archives contain one or more files, usually in a compressed format, so that they can be transferred easily and quickly. VirusBarrier will look inside several popular types of archives, scanning not only the archive file itself, but also the files that it contains.

By default, VirusBarrier will scan all archive types that it understands; however, you could choose to scan only certain archive types by unchecking different types of archives in the Archive Options list.

The Archive timeout setting lets you tell VirusBarrier to stop scanning archives that take more than a certain amount of time to uncompress and scan. By default, this is set to 60 seconds. However, any files that have been uncompressed before the end of this timeout will be scanned.

Play sound when a scan is complete or malware is found:

This option, when checked, will alert you with a sound when a scan is complete or when malware is found.

Trusted Items

VirusBarrier offers the option to add files, folders or volumes to a list of Trusted Items. VirusBarrier will assume that these files are all safe and will not scan them. You should only use this for files that have already been scanned by VirusBarrier.

There are two ways to add files, folders and volumes to the Trusted Files list. First click the Trusted Items button:

Then, do one of the following:

Click the small + button at the bottom-left corner of the screen, navigate to the item you'd like to add to the Trusted Items list, then click the Add button, or

Drag the item from the Finder into the window

Adding a folder or volume tells VirusBarrier to trust all files contained in the selected item, including in any subfolders it contains.

Advanced

Security: If you check Require administrators to authenticate in order to make changes to settings, only those users who can enter an administrator's password can make any changes to VirusBarrier's settings.

Feedback

Intego software periodically collects information about how features in its products are used to help improve their quality and reliability. All information collected is fully anonymous and cannot be used to personally identify any particular user or their behavior.

There is no action required on your part for information to be collected. You will not need to fill out any surveys and will not be contacted by Intego regarding this information.

Logs

The VirusBarrier log shows a record of malware activity that VirusBarrier has observed, including all manual and scheduled scans, and the results of these scans. You can filter it to highlight issues of interest.

To access the malware log, choose Window > Logs from the top Menu bar, or press Command-Option-L.

The log looks as follows, although of course your log will show different entries from this one.

The Log shows every time that:

You start a scan

You cancel a scan in mid-process

You start or stop the real-time scanner

VirusBarrier finishes a scan, with its results

VirusBarrier discovers a virus

VirusBarrier discovers a corrupted file

VirusBarrier repairs an infected file

Files are added to or removed from the Quarantine Zone

Files are added to or removed from the Trusted Files list

Virus definitions are updated

The colored dots in the leftmost column show you what types of entries are displayed in the log. Green dots indicate information, such as starting the real-time scanner or updating virus definitions. Orange dots are for warnings, such as stopping the real-time scanner. Red dots indicate threats, such as when infected or corrupted files are found. The files, folders or volumes selected for each scan are named, as are all problems found.

You can copy any log items by selecting them and pressing Command-C; you can then paste them into another application, if needed.

You can clear the entire log by clicking the Clear... button.

Clearing the Log

To clear the log, and erase all information it contains, click the Clear... button in the lower-left corner. A dialog appears, asking you to confirm your request.

Updates

VirusBarrier uses NetUpdate to check for definition and software updates. NetUpdate can be accessed directly from your Menu Bar:

NetUpdate can also be accessed from the Intego Folder located in your Applications Folder:

/Applications/Intego

You can also check for virus definition and software updates directly through VirusBarrier by clicking Installed Definitions in the upper right corner of the window:

When you launch NetUpdate, you will be notified if updates are available for your software, or if your software is up to date.

Deauthorizing Intego Software

Intego software comes with a license that allows you to use the software on at least one Mac (standard license), three Macs, or even more if you have a business license. When you install Intego software on one of your Macs and serialize it, that Mac is considered to be authorized for one seat of your license. If you have multiple copies of the software installed, and wish to use it on a different Mac, you will need to deauthorize the software for one Mac and serialize it on another Mac.

To deauthorize any Intego software including VirusBarrier, open the program, then click the program name menu and choose Deauthorize VirusBarrier…. Below you can see this menu item:

Remember to deauthorize your Intego software if you sell one of your Macs and wish to use the software on a new Mac.

VirusBarrier Knowledge Base and Support

If you still have questions about using your VirusBarrier software and cannot find the answer in this User Manual, please check our VirusBarrier Knowledge Base for answers to the most common questions by clicking the link below: